Budget for refugees would be ‘better spent on most vulnerable population’, says Ukrainian professor in Dublin

The Irish State should continue providing supports to vulnerable Ukrainian refugees, including women with small children, but adults capable of working should be encouraged to find jobs within a few months, a Ukrainian associate professor working in Dublin has said.

Iryna Mazhak, a medical sociologist from near Kyiv who moved to Ireland in May 2023, believes the Irish Government’s budget for refugees would be “better spent on the most vulnerable population”. “Of course countries supporting Ukrainian refugees never expected so many people would come when the war started,” Ms Mazhak told The Irish Times. “I think Ukrainian refugees have to be integrated after a while and find jobs to be useful for the country. We don’t know how long Russia will continue to shell Ukraine.”

Ms Mazhak came to Ireland earlier this year as part of the Scholars at Risk programme, which is based in Maynooth University and supports researchers from war-torn regions to carry out their work in a peaceful environment. Ms Mazhak is researching the physical and mental health of female refugees in partnership with the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) and lives in Dublin with her 13-year-old son.

A single mother, the Ukrainian academic and her son fled their home just 24 hours after Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February 2022. “My son has ADHD and there were so many rockets – it was very loud and dangerous. My son was so scared of the sound of helicopters flying overhead, he’s still scared of that sound.” The pair spent a few weeks in western Ukraine before travelling to the city of Brno in Czechia where friends had helped Ms Mazhak find work at a university.

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I missed my home very much; I missed my bed and my garden, it’s difficult to explain. But there was constant shelling

—  Iryna Mazhak

She availed of financial support from the Czech Government for one month but then started earning a salary as a researcher at Masaryk University. “The country also had housing support but we didn’t need it because the university helped us find an apartment. I’ll be grateful to them my whole life.”

In early 2023, Ms Mazhak learned about the Scholars at Risk programme, which would enable her to continue her work outside Ukraine through funding from the European Commission. She was unable to find an academic partner in Czechia but discovered the RCSI in Dublin was seeking a medical researcher and was accepted through the programme.

She and her son briefly returned to Ukraine in April to visit family. “I missed my home very much; I missed my bed and my garden, it’s difficult to explain. But there was constant shelling, so we went to relatives in the west of the country and stayed there while we searched for an apartment in Dublin. Even in the west we could hear air sirens, it’s the worst sound.”

[ Most Ukrainians came to Ireland due to English language and distance from Russia ]

The pair arrived in Dublin in May. Ms Mazhak is contracted to work in Dublin for the next two years. Her son is slowly settling into school and she’s relieved he can continue his education through English, a language he already speaks. She’s met plenty of other Ukrainian refugees but no one who came to Ireland from another EU member state.

“I’m so grateful I can stay here and be safe with my son while doing useful research on refugees but I pray everything will be finished in Ukraine soon so we can go home.”

Nataliia Yakymchenko and her husband Oleksii also left Kyiv with their three children as soon as the war broke out in February 2022. They initially went to Slovakia where they volunteered to help other Ukrainians fleeing the country. However, after one month they moved to the Netherlands to join friends working at a school promoting the integration of Ukrainian children into the community. They secured work contracts at the school but Ms Yakymchenko became concerned that the country’s education system did not suit her children.

Of course, the child benefit payments were useful when we first arrived but that’s not the reason we came. We don’t think about supports, we came to work

—  Nataliia Yakymchenko

[ Accommodating Ukranian refugees: how does Ireland compare? ]

“That was our first and main reason for moving to Ireland this year,” says Ms Yakymchenko, who arrived here in May 2023. “We had friends here who told us how great the schools were and our kids already spoke English. In the Netherlands they needed to learn Dutch and were trying to continue their Ukrainian schooling online. Of course, the child benefit payments were useful when we first arrived but that’s not the reason we came. We don’t think about supports, we came to work.”

Both actors, the couple ran their own stage school in Ukraine and are hoping to find work in the arts. “We’re looking for positions for my husband and have been contacting local theatres and organisations to make that happen,” says Ms Yakymchenko who is 37 weeks pregnant and unable to work for now.

Her three children – aged 16, 10 and five – have settled extremely well into the Irish school system and the family are now living in Cavan in a house they secured through the Helping Irish Hosts network. “We are totally amazed by this country’s beauty and friendliness. As parents we are happy because our children are happy.”